The fruits of an incredible team, working incredibly hard:

Well, the year of the Rabbit is certainly living up to its rep, off to a flying start.. !

Kindly excuse my tardy blog behaviour, I have had my head down busting my ass to help organise an incredible event with the Clean Air Network (CAN), Hk's leading clean air NGO, to educate our residents about Hk's no 1 health crisis: Air Pollution.

I have learnt some horrifying and alarming facts about the air that we have no choice to breathe in this land that is home to us all. The CAN team are incredibly motivating and enthusiastic about tackling this cause, and I think it is an inspired idea to bring awareness of this issue to the public through some of HKs leading creative minds.

We have some incredible artists from HK, China and overseas contributing and you can check out all of the details here:

Website: www.cleanairauction.com.hk
Twitter: @cleanairauction
Facebook: clean air auction


About the Auction

You CAN make a difference. Learn more about how air pollution affects the health and livelihood of our city every day.

Did you know:

* Hong Kong’s air is three times more polluted than New York’s?
* Exposure to high levels of roadside air pollution increases blood viscosity within 20 minutes and heart rate within 2 hours?
* 2010’s roadside pollution was the worst in Hong Kong’s history?
* Air pollution sends approximately 20,000 people to the doctor a day?

Visit hongkongcan.org to understand more about how air pollution is actually Hong Kong’s biggest avoidable public health crisis. Then, support clean air by bidding on a lot in the Clean Air Auction.

The Clean Air Auction is the first environmental art exhibition and auction in Asia of its kind and is a Clean Air Network (CAN) fund raising initiative conducted with the generous support of Sotheby’s and BSI Investment Advisors (Hong Kong) Ltd.

The objectives are threefold:

* To raise funds for CAN’s research and educational projects
* To educate the public, including the artistic community, about the health impacts of Hong Kong’s air pollution by engaging the imaginations of leading artists on the issue, especially artists who call Hong Kong home
* To highlight the increasing influence of the environment as a theme in art and culture

The Auction will take place on April 4th and be showcased in a dedicated section of Sotheby’s Hong Kong Contemporary Asian Art Spring Auction 2011 art auctions at Hall 5, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. You can also bid online at sothebys.com.

On this website, you can view auction lots and see interviews and the biographies of participating artists and sponsors. Many of Hong Kong’s top artists have specially created work for the auction.

Clean Air Network is Hong Kong’s leading clean air NGO, dedicated to educating and mobilizing the public about the health impacts of air pollution. Find out more at hongkongcan.org.

Mwahahaha - a guest appearance on the website of my previous company:
http://www.cflhk.com/careers/

So the good people of Kee Magazine ran an article on my Doris series I did for the Dead Art Comes Alive exhibition at UFO Gallery a wee while back.

Kudos to Andre for making me sound profound and much more cool than I ever actually could be - Many Thanks to Ann at The Antithesis.


Here’s the feature:

Words & Portrait: Andre Cooper.







Full Article Below:

The Naked Truth

More fashion sinister than fashionista, the macabre yet uber-chic ‘Doris’ character, the subject of Tanya Bennett’s art, recently exhibited at the UFO Gallery, is an understated social commentary on the fashion industry, femininity and particularly our visual fixation with body mass or lack thereof. Uniquely mixing art and fashion illustration, the talented UK-born artist, through a subliminal form of reverse psychology, draws attention to the fashion industry’s obsession with weight whilst simultaneously celebrating the beauty within all women even if they don’t quite fit the norm.

If Kate Moss and David Lynch had a love child, she might grow up to closely resemble the ‘Doris’ character in Tanya Bennett’s latest series of paintings exhibited at the UFO Gallery last month. Each image is labelled with its own ‘Doris’ moniker - ‘Rainy Day Doris’, ‘Melancholy Doris’, ‘Winged Doris’... Bennett, their quirky creator even has a Doris name of her own - ‘Pirate Doris’ - which in a way bonds the artist tightly with her art, like a mother to her slightly disturbed and severely malnourished offspring.

However, in all seriousness, as an interview with the artist unravels on literally a dark and stormy night, a little freakish for the pre-monsoon season, it turns out that Bennett is in reality, a ray of sunshine.

“When I was presenting the paintings, my dad asked if I was OK. He said my work was normally so happy, but now it seemed all depressed and weird,” says Bennett with a guffaw. The young Hong Kong-based artist with a wicked sense of humour and endearingly self-deprecating, is well aware of the impact that her images have on others. “All my figures are really exaggerated, very skinny and have strange proportions,” she confirms. “I think maybe it’s a conscious image that the fashion industry has constantly surrounded me with my entire life – and that’s just what comes out.” Without being preachy, the artist’s work creates a point of conversation in the fashion world’s own visual vernacular about itself and where it’s headed.

Her aloof, painfully waif-like characters appear to be inspired by today’s models or at least our perception of them. In fact, her images are the kind you’d perhaps expect to see on the wall of Grace Coddington’s home, or someone connected with the field. The ambiguous nature of her art is also part of the attraction. it’s not about next season’s collection, although it could be. And it’s not too shocking but at the same time, a little perverse in a way. The work is a Trojan horse of sorts, as Bennett’s images are pretty and stylish enough to be lapped up by the fashion community. “I think that’s what fashion is all about – projecting an image and trying to be the best that you can be aesthetically,” says the artist. That said, the ‘Doris’ series offers a post-Modern take on the fashion scene as a whole.

While Bennett’s svelte figures are a reminder of the heavy image burden that befalls all women, she also appears to be embracing the female form regardless of body type – contorted limbs, elongated breasts, and all. “I just think women are awesome! They have this wonderful power to be very feminine when they want to be,” she enthuses. “So I try to make them strong, aware of their femininity but also as you can see, quite vulnerable at the same time.” Undeniably, the Doris characters share an outward vulnerability and an inner confidence despite their emotional and physical anorexia, and parallels to this,albeit somewhat inverted, can easily be drawn with today’s models.


Bennett studied Fashion Illustration at the Scottish School of Textiles, where she kept trying to add art elements to her illustrations which she says somewhat baffled her teachers. Clearly, the calling to fuse the two worlds was too strong for her to ignore, so she ventured to Asia in pursuit of a career as an artist. “I always wanted to come to China, but because of my keen interest in fashion, I went and studied that first,” she states. “Coming here opened my eyes to just how many different cultures are around us, and I tried to develop the Doris series a little more.” Thus, the girls have taken on Asian and African identities, amongst others.

Ironically and rather interestingly, the trained fashion illustrator paints her subjects almost au naturel, save for their running mascara. “I keep saying to myself, this is fashion illustration, but none of them wear any clothes! And if they do, then it’s just a bottom and they’re topless or wearing a lace camisole. Something, but it’s still seethrough,” she acknowledges with a bright smile. Intentionally or not, Bennett uses the paradigms of fashion illustration as a tool to express a mood or feeling, and the way she sees the world in which fashion is a big influence. “I was having a really bad day,” she recalls. “It was raining and the first thing that went on to the canvas was this really blue, dark, depressed, lace glove, with tears streaming down,” says Bennett in reference to ‘Rainy Day Doris,’ the first prototype of her series. Doris according to Bennett, is a euphemism for women in general, a term that she confesses to borrowing from her rocker boyfriend, Craig Leeson of the local band Uranus.

Bennett’s next project will see her attempting to convey the expat psyche and
experience in Hong Kong. An artist to keep an eye on, this talented young woman is part of a new generation of young, up-and-coming, locally based artists that are reviving the scene, and slowly but surely releasing the SAR from the shackles of being culturally moribund.



www.theantithesis.net
http://www.alivenotdead.com/ufoartgallery
www.alivenotdead.com/Uranus
www.alivenotdead.com/craigleeson
www.alivenotdead.com/emiliesidea (Emilie Doris is an illustration of Emily Wallbanks work)

I have TONNES of shizzle and pics, and vids to post.
However, this is me right now:

So bear with me and Ill post when I can!

I have

- Speak Up! Showing some of my work at an artist network night last week to promote the gallery opening.
- Steve Aoki DJ night (woop woop)
- UFO - my 1st ever exhibition opening... sooooo cool :)
- Deep Purple in concert

The exhibition got a mention in the Chinese Newspaper called 'AM730' this morning.
And look, Ive been censored hahahaha

Some pics from a wedding I attended last weekend, beautiful service

Continuing with the 'Im so excited about the impending festive celebrations that I cant stop blogging about crimbo' posts, here is my team at work in our crimbo card I tacked up with nonsense.... you cant fight the glitz sometimes

Ingredients of a Chinese company office party include:

1. More food than you could possibly eat (every last morsel gets hoovered up - I honestly dont know WHERE they put it?!).We had rather an eceletic mix of turkey, pizza, sushi and noodles.



2. Matching xmas jumpers

3. Paper hats

4. LOTS and LOTS of team photos

5. EVEN MORE photos inbetween the team photos



Love it :)
x

William Pfeiffer is a tres talented man of the media world.
The former Celestial Pictures boss, now heads up Tiger Gate Entertainment which has two channels initially targeted at the Asian market.
KIX is an action channel featuring sports and fight events, sci-fi, action reality shows and high quality movies. Thrill is a movie channel specializing in the thriller, suspense, horror genres.
http://www.alivenotdead.com/williampfeiffer

More importantly... he is also the lead singer of my favourite band in HK: Uranus(of which I am a dedicated groupie as you know).
www.alivenotdead.com/uranus

I was honored to be commissioned (by his smoking hot and equally talented doris) to do a portrait of him and his son.

I saved the image in stages to give you an idea of my working process.

Here is the finished piece


Crimbo Kisses to All
Nearly mince pie time mmmm

Tx

Hiking:
Ah, the fresh air, the views, the self satisfaction of exercising the limbs, the peace and quiet and tranquility of getting out of the concrete jungle city.
Unless:
You agree to go with 60 of your Chinese colleagues.

It was actually a very pleasant day, (despite the giant bustling crowd of slow walkers, stopping to take pictures every 10 seconds lol). Yes that is in fact me in the company baseball cap..

I have to confess, that I did in fact sneak off early and made a dash for Stanley, where I indulged in a glass of deserved lovely cold white wine.

Highlights in a bloggage nutshell:

The View & Glorious weather.





The GINORMOUS freaky large goldfish in the reservoir.


The hilarity of everyone clamoring around the bbq chef to get their food (hungry impatient hikers).



Misses
Tx

Catch up mania with the return to work, dreams of being permanently on holiday living the glorious life of a tai tai have been scuppered by those evil number re-arrangers who live in the ATM machine and lie to me about how much casharama I have been spending on said leisure pursuits.
So its been head down, to-do list tackling of late... hence the lack of bloggage fodder.

Having said that, it is a long weekend this weekend. I plan to embark on my vision of being a well organised GROWN UP, by realising a balance between gluttonous relaxation time on the beach (some good swell heading our way thanks to the impending typhoon) and working my pencil powers on a new portrait commission that is currently in process.

I will of course keep my eyes peeled for interesting shizzle along the way to share with you.

Misses

Tx

A wee feature in Issue 2 of this newly established HK magazine targeting Hk teens.



Full content can be viewed here:
http://skytao.com/skymagazine/ISSUETWO/?i=ISSUE2FIN.jpg

Website:
www.alivenotdead.com/skymagazine

Hey guess what, you can now buy limited edition runs of some select prints on the following website which is dedicated to promoting HK (and Asia based) artists:
http://artisteventscompany.com/